“My life is not as I wish”: Nathalie, suffering from obesity, decided to have surgery

She is preparing for it, in her body and in her mind. Well obliged. Nathalie Meyer, 57, mother of two beautiful children, is engaged in “an obstacle course”.

Surgeon, dietician, physiotherapist, shrink, but also cardiologist, radiologist… Ten health professionals, no less, punctuate the six months of preparation recommended for his operation. The one who must transform her body.

“I didn’t want to be butchered. All the problems inherent in obesity finally decided me”confides this pure Mandolocian, smiling and pleasant.

Like one in six French people, Nathalie Meyer suffers from obesity. She now weighs 130kg. She laughs about it, but also suffers from it.

So Nathalie is going to undergo a gastric bypass, “the longest and riskiest procedure, but also the one where there is the most weight loss.” She hopes to lose “50, even 60 kilos”.

Her stress pushing her to a “compulsive” relationship with food, this 50-something tries to eat organic and good food. Photo Patrice Lapoirie.

“I started to get scared”

Ok, Nathalie didn’t “Never been thin. I love life, good things.” Her weight problems have worsened since she left her last job at a dietitian clinic.

Before that, she was an interior designer, a professional airplane pilot, a banking executive, and lived in the United States and Switzerland. She now lives in the pretty house built by her grandparents, in La Napoule. “When we stop working, we become more sedentary…”

This sedentary lifestyle has favored obesity. Other factors came into play. His natural stress, especially. “I largely compensate with food, compulsively. A form of bulimia.”

This 50-year-old tried hard to eat organic and good food, but she couldn’t stop her weight loss. And Natalie has “started to get scared…”

In front of her medical file, Nathalie Meyer describes her “obstacle course” until the operation. Photo Patrice Lapoirie.

“A lot of things ruin your life

She lists the list of health problems induced by her illness. Severe sleep apnea. High tension. Threatening diabetes. “And the life expectancy which is considerably reduced.” With a vicious circle as a bonus: “When you are obese, you move less, so you exercise less…”

And then, Nathalie made this relentless observation: “My life isn’t what I want it to be. You can’t dress the way you want. Lots of things ruin your life, like cramped chairs at restaurants.” Without forgetting the gaze of others. In evoking it, a veil of sadness catches Nathalie’s smile: “Of course it affects me…”

The click came last summer. A trip to the Faroe Islands, with his slender and sporty son. Impossible to trudge alongside him. “I was very frustrated…” It was decided: she would have an operation. Go for the works of “piping”as she says.

“Locked in their heads and their bodies”

In his “obstacle course”, Nathalie Meyer is not moving forward alone. Member of the Obésité Nice Paca association, she participates in art therapy, sophrology and image consulting workshops.

She praises the quality of listening, of exchange – “You only have benevolence. It is essential to be accompanied! Because some lock themselves up in their head and in their body.”

Like Nathalie, many have not received any food education. A lever to prevent obesity. “People don’t understand that it’s a disease, just like anorexia.”

Nathalie hopes to recover from it, even if “it is very difficult to change the perception of oneself.” With an aspiration: “Much move!”